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    Howto Disable Video Thumbnailing in Vista

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by SkyWraith, Jun 16, 2008.

  1. SkyWraith

    SkyWraith Notebook Enthusiast

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    but keep image thumbnailing.


    this requires you to edit your registry - DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK - create a backup of anything you change!

    Navigate to
    HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\
    delete
    {c5a40261-cd64-4ccf-84cb-c394da41d590}

    on my system
    {c5a40261-cd64-4ccf-84cb-c394da41d590}
    is "Video Thumbnail Extractor", with InProcServer32 pointing to "%SystemRoot%\System32\mediametadatahandler.dll", I suggest you check it's the same before deleting it & make a backup first.

    *While this appears to have no side effects other than disabling the video thumbs & appears ok on my system. I make no guarantees, use at your own risk.
     
    SkyWraith, Jun 16, 2008
    #1
  2. ttupa

    ttupa Tech Elitist NBR Reviewer

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    Cool trick, but...why?
     
    ttupa, Jun 16, 2008
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  3. flipfire

    flipfire Moderately Boss

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    to hide obscene video previews
     
    flipfire, Jun 16, 2008
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  4. SkyWraith

    SkyWraith Notebook Enthusiast

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    also video preview can be slow (especially on a laptop) or crash explorer if your video files are broken or incomplete (still being copied / downloaded etc)
     
    SkyWraith, Jun 16, 2008
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  5. PhoenixFx

    PhoenixFx Notebook Virtuoso

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    Thanks, but I've simply disabled all thumbnails.. too slow to browse directories with thumbnails...
     
    PhoenixFx, Jun 16, 2008
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  6. j-dogg

    j-dogg Notebook Evangelist

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    i don't even have these to begin with for all my video files it just shows a picture of the video, it doesn't show a video thumbnail. is there some kind of setting to turn it on?
     
    j-dogg, Jun 16, 2008
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  7. SkyWraith

    SkyWraith Notebook Enthusiast

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    That's what we mean by video thumbnails - would be cool if we could get actual video playing on the thumbs though :D

    This hack changes from images to a generic icon for all video files
     
    SkyWraith, Jun 16, 2008
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  8. j-dogg

    j-dogg Notebook Evangelist

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    ahh ok i get it lol.
     
    j-dogg, Jun 16, 2008
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  9. SkyWraith

    SkyWraith Notebook Enthusiast

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    On my next reload of vista, I was still getting thumbs on .avi extensions after the above hack...

    Further investigation lead me to also delete
    HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{9DBD2C50-62AD-11d0-B806-00C04FD706EC}
    "Property Thumbnail Handler"

    Problem solved, no other side-effects observed as yet :)

    The main reason for this hack is that I back up small video clips onto dvd (sometimes 500+ per disc) - with thumbs, when I insert the dvd it hammered the drive as it tried to create the thumbs, trying to do anything with the disc before it finished was useless & if the disc was scratched explorer would often crash.
     
    SkyWraith, Jan 10, 2009
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  10. Shyster1

    Shyster1 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Couldn't you just set the folder properties so that it displayed each file as an icon instead of a thumbnail?
     
    Shyster1, Jan 10, 2009
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  11. SkyWraith

    SkyWraith Notebook Enthusiast

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    Unfortunately in vista the only way to do that seems to be to disable ALL thumbnailing (pictures included), I still want to look at a folder full of photo's & see what they are.
     
    SkyWraith, Jan 10, 2009
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  12. jonhapimp

    jonhapimp Notebook Virtuoso

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    ok i see what you mean
    i have to have videos thumbnails disabled to because explorer keeps crashing
     
    jonhapimp, Jan 10, 2009
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  13. Shyster1

    Shyster1 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    I believe that would be the same result in XP, as well; the standard configuration options don't allow one to pick and choose which items are viewed as thumbnails and which as icons.
     
    Shyster1, Jan 10, 2009
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  14. SkyWraith

    SkyWraith Notebook Enthusiast

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    xp was a lot simpler though, all you had to do was unregister a dll
    'regsvr32 /u shlmedia.dll' or something like that (it's been a while).
     
    SkyWraith, Jan 10, 2009
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  15. Shyster1

    Shyster1 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Interesting. Will that affect all file types, or just permit you to pick and choose which types of media files (e.g., mpeg versus jpg) get displayed with thumbnails, and which not?
     
    Shyster1, Jan 11, 2009
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  16. SkyWraith

    SkyWraith Notebook Enthusiast

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    You can do Video & Images separately, however to do specific types of video (e.g. avi on, mpeg off) would require a lot more work.

    for XP:
    To disable image thumbs run 'regsvr32 /u shimgvw.dll'
    To disable video thumbs run 'regsvr32 /u shmedia.dll'

    for Vista:
    To disable ALL thumbs Tools/Folder Options/View 'Always Show Icons, Never Thumbnails'.
    To Disable Video but Keep Images see above.
    To Disable Images Only... I never bothered figuring it out. :p
     
    SkyWraith, Jan 11, 2009
    #16
  17. Shyster1

    Shyster1 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Whaddya know! Thanks for putting that up, I might just have a need for that!
     
    Shyster1, Jan 11, 2009
    #17